This is the first time that I took a wander to the beach with the new 100-400mm RF lens. The last time I was here it was late summer and low tide. I think the combination meant there was a lot of little birds grazing in the sand.
It was still a great walk, and I got to practice taking fast pictures of the birds that I saw.
Loose dog on the beach
Unfortuneately, a collie got away from its owner, and while it stayed in the water away from the birds, it was following friendly people (from a distance) trying to find its owner.
Collie got away from its owner
If you are taking your dog to the beach, please keep it on leash. This is especially true near any nesting grounds. The owner didn't let the dog get away, and he was very excited to be at the beach and just wanted to play.
There was another guy on the beach, enjoying the nature, that played with him and looked for the owner. The dog wasn't sure what was going on, or where his owner was.
Its owner came down just as I found a couple plovers and tried to get close. I imagine I looked funny stalking a bird that I doubt he could see at all. I cropped way in on these photos, and when I was editing I had a hard time finding it sometimes.
I got a couple of shots farther away, but they weren't exactly what I was hoping for.
Hunting for bugs
Something I missed when I was there, but I caught a bird hunting for a bug. You can just see it in the sequence. I'm sure if I kept the shutter button down for a second or so longer I would have had it catching it.
As it was, it as so far away I wasn't even sure if the focus was keeping up. That's one of the bigger drawbacks of this lens, the maximum apeture at 400mm is f8, and that doesn't allow a lot of light in at distance.
You can see that in most of these pictures if you compare them to pro photos on flickr or instagram, there is a lot of the foreground (and background) in focus, and not as much of that pleasant blur and bokeh.
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